THIS INVENTION relates to treatment of livestock for the purposes of branding and/or dehorning.
As a result of research conducted in the late 1940's and early 1950's it was found that it was possible to deactivate the pigmentation functions of animal skin through the application of low temperatures and that the pigmentation function was not reactivated afterwards resulting in the production of non-pigmented hair in the region of the skin so treated. As a result of this discovery the practice of freeze branding was established whereby a brand chilled by means of dry ice and/or liquid nitrogen was applied to the coat of an animal in much the same way as known hot brands to produce a non-pigmented zone on the animal's coat which was according to the pattern of the applied brand. The difficulties in this technique however are the cost of the brands involved and the high degree of quality control required in order to produce satisfactory results. These features limited the widespread usage of the technique to those stock breeders who are able to afford to hire skilled consultants able to use the freeze branding technique.
Subsequently a further method of freeze branding was developed which involved the use of stencils which were applied to a closely clipped site on an animal's body and whereby the exposed portion of the skin was treated using liquids having a sub-zero boiling point such a Freon. Difficulties with this technique arose from the fact that the stencils had to be glued to the animal's hide and that the animals hide had to be prepared before the stencils could be so applied. The technique led to blurring of the characters being stenciled which therefor required a large area to be treated to minimise the effects of blurring which in turn required a large amount of the cooling medium.